Two neighbours have hit out at pranksters who are pulling up manhole covers and throwing them in a field.

Trevor Simcock and Steven Hall, who live on Norton Lane, Norton, were walking their dogs when they noticed a manhole cover was missing from the road. They looked around and found it on the other side of a fence and put it back.

But a few days later Trevor noticed another manhole cover had been lifted from the pavement, just metres away. Again it had been hurled over a fence.

The friends say if the ‘pranks’ continue it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed.

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Trevor, aged 62, said: “Last week my neighbour and I were walking the dogs when we noticed somebody had removed a manhole cover from the road. It is a split manhole and there were lifted up and thrown into the fields. It would have to be someone with a lot of strength. My mate re-fitted it.

“Then a few days later I noticed someone had removed a cover from the drainage channel on the footpath and thrown it over the hedge.

“It is very dangerous. A cyclist could go in it. Removing the one from the pavement is also dangerous because a child, or someone who has had a few drinks, could fall in it.”

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Trevor, a retired building surveyor for Staffordshire County Council, added: “Once, yes, a drunken prank. But twice, that is malicious. These people need to realise somebody could be killed.”

The manhole which was removed from the pavement in Norton Lane

Steven, aged 57, said: “We were just having a walk when we noticed a manhole cover missing. We saw it lying on the other side of the fence and we put it back.

“It is dangerous. If someone had gone in the hole, a motorcyclist or a cyclist, it could have been nasty. It a car went over the hole, it would have knocked the balance out. It is very dangerous because it is on a bend and you don’t see it until you are on top of it.”

Steven, a former supervisor for National Grid Gas, added: “Whoever is doing it needs to grow up.”